Transference (31 March - 14 May 2000)
Recent Works by nine artist/lecturers from
Charles Sturt University
Foreword | Beyond the Black Stump |
The Power of Provincialism | Artists | Biographies | Catalogue
Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery
- Ph:(02) 6926 9660
Email: gallery@wagga.nsw.gov.au

Andrew Last: alast@csu.edu.au

In the 1950's jet aeroplane designers relied on an intuitive eye to discover the new shapes of speed. In the late 1950's Harley Earl, the chief designer for General Motors, borrowed fins, wrap around
windshields and polished metal from jet aircraft and applied them to the shapes of his automobiles. Those devices made the cars look fast even in the showroom. That same concern with a visually implied sense of the potential for speed and motion unifies the imagery of all my works in this exhibition.

The works have a primary identity that places them within the discipline of contemporary silversmithing. Although the works are made predominantly from aluminium, designed using CAD computer software and fabricated using TIG welding techniques the detail of construction, finish and concern with issues of function give the works a preciousness that acknowledges the history and tradition of the silversmithing craft.


Having said the works are primarily silversmithing objects, there is an ambiguity of identity that allows them to be read also as industrial design or sculptural works. The 'Calyx' light leaves the traditional
silversmithing site of the table and is wall mounted. The shift in site also demands a change of scale, away from the traditional relationship to the human hand and instead to a scale that is governed by interior architectural space and its relationship to the size of a human body. Although 'Calyx' may be described by its function as a light fitting it is not intended to illuminate anything specific. Light is used more as a material in the formal composition of the object and as a mediator between site and object. 'Dihedra' similarly may have an archetypal identity as a bowl or vessel but this utility is non-specific, its primary function is aesthetic - an object of beauty. The 'LOX' ice bucket, however, has a very specific utility, it is designed to keep champagne cold. 'LOX' is also designed to be produced in repetition (the object in this exhibition is 'LOX' #17).

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